In some ways, Adam Wallace represents the evolution of fighting in the Ontario Hockey Association’s junior ranks.

The bruising blue-liner was a pain for opposing players, racking up close to 10 fights in three seasons with his hometown Woodstock Navy Vets, Leamington Flyers, and St. Thomas Stars.

Wallace left the OHA for two years, dropping his gloves 50 times and giving the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires an intimidating element as they won back-to-back Memorial Cup titles in 2010 and 2011.

Almost a decade after his junior career ended, the 28-year-old is now behind the bench as head coach of a Cambridge RedHawks team that has just four fights this season.

“The game has certainly changed since I played,” he said. “It’s good where it’s at right now. Guys will still stick up for each other, but fans get to see more goals and the entertaining stuff … but I think there’s still a place for fighting in the game. It has to come at the right time and for the right reasons.”

After years of gradual decline, fighting in junior hockey in the OHA is taking a beating thanks to rules put in place to deter fisticuffs and a renewed value on brains over brawn.

“I think the game has constantly evolved,” Stratford Warriors head coach Dave Williams said. “I personally don’t think the game has ever been better than it is today. I think everyone appreciates the skill and speed of the game, and I think as there’s been greater focus and emphasis on players developing their skillset to be offensively impactful players, it lends itself that (fighting) doesn’t happen as often.”

In 2017-18, fighting in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League dropped 58.3 per cent from the previous season to 0.10 fights per game, according to data provided by the OHA. It was the first season after the governing body mandated full facial protection for all of its players across three junior leagues.

Not only did eliminating half visors make it more difficult to fight, but removing an opponent’s helmet now results in an automatic gross misconduct and one-game suspension that could increase to two games if a player removes his own helmet. Tack on another game if the fight happens in the last 10 minutes of the third period, a decision that was made several years ago to prevent brawls when the score was lopsided.

Those rules didn’t exist in the 1980s and 90s when OHA players wore facemasks and fights were frequent, especially late in the game.

“There’s definitely going to be times on the ice you’ll be playing with that kind of speed and that kind of compete that you’re going to have situations where guys are going to bump into each other and not like what has taken place,” Williams said. “Emotions are going to get the best of guys.”

Williams played for the Stratford Cullitons in 1995-96 when four players each accumulated more than 100 penalty minutes. By comparison, only four players have hit that mark in three-plus seasons as head coach of the Warriors.

Williams said it starts at the top, as fighting in the NHL has dropped to its lowest point since 1961-62.

“I think those are the games that set the standard for our guys. As that has been taken out of the game at the higher levels, I think that’s just working its way right through.”

In the Ontario Junior Hockey League, fighting fell 50 per cent to 0.06 per game in 2017-18. While the OHA’s rules have helped, the Junior A league created additional sanctions for players and coaches to combat repeat offenders with a penchant for pugilism.

“It’s taken a big dip,” OJHL commissioner Marty Savoy said. “I think it will continue to go down. We’re so influenced by the NHL for so many reasons. They’re amazing athletes, and when our kids look at them and see they don’t fight, they won’t want to fight.”

Savoy was 17 when he cracked the Oakville Blades’ roster in 1988. It was often men against boys – literally – when players with a four-year age gap dropped the gloves.

“You wouldn’t allow that to happen anywhere else in society,” he said. “Back then you had to fight. It was something that you did. You don’t have to do that anymore. We want kids who can play the game, skate and score. That’s what our coaches and general managers are looking for.”

Contraction in the early 2010s also helped the OJHL eliminate enforcers and elevate its pool of talent in an effort to become more attractive to prospective players hoping to earn a scholarship. There were 0.4 fights per game in 2012-13, and that average has gone down each season since.

“The guys who are coming in and going through our league don’t want to be perceived as a fighter,” Savoy said. “They want to be a skilled player who can contribute to a winning hockey team. The kid realizes the night he sits out (due to a suspension for fighting) might be the night Cornell is there to look at him … you can’t afford to sit in the stands.”

Michigan Tech NCAA Division 1 men’s hockey assistant coach Chris Brooks said recruiting players who fight isn’t a priority, but the former Cullitons star appreciates competitive and relentless traits often found in players willing to scrap.

“I always looked at fighting within hockey as a form of entertainment, a way to change momentum in a game, or a way to create an identity for a player or often a team,” he said. “The game has certainly evolved over the years, with speed and skill becoming such a priority. The talent level of players today is exceptional, but the best players still need to have that competitive spirit and hard-nosed will to separate them from other players.”

Fighting has flatlined in the 63-team Provincial Junior Hockey League, which has existed since 2016 when Junior C and D teams merged. There were 0.20 fights per game in 2017-18, down a tick from 0.21 in each of the previous two seasons.

Woodstock Navy Vets defenceman Cam Leslie, left, finishes a fight against Wellesley Applejacks forward Riley Bester at the end of the third period in Woodstock’s home opener in Woodstock, Ont. on Friday September 18, 2015. Greg Colgan/Woodstock Sentinel-Review/Postmedia Network

“When I was a player it was very common to see multiple fights in a game,” Tavistock Braves head coach Dan Kalbfleisch said. “It’s only 10 years ago but throughout my junior career there’d be line brawls or things of that nature. What I’ve seen as a coach in our division it’s almost non-existent. (Dec. 13) we had our second fight of the year.”

The OHA’s largest league is due to see a regression in fights much like those at higher levels, Kalbfleisch believes.

“Eventually it will find its way to Junior C. Skill level is going up from here more than it was five, 10 years ago.”

Detractors of fighting in hockey are growing as more is known about the long-term effects of trading fists to the face. Stratford’s Jamie Petrie fought numerous times while playing for a trio of Junior B teams in the 1980s and is believed to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain condition associated with repeated blows to the head.

Former teammate Mike Peluso racked up 114 PIMs with the Cullitons in 1984-85, which set the stage for an eight-year NHL career that included more than 170 fights and left him with brain damage.

Peluso has tried to fight back in court, and he recently made it known he wouldn’t accept a $22,000 settlement as part of a concussion lawsuit brought against the NHL by more than 100 retired players.

Richard Karcher, a law professor at Eastern Michigan University who is an expert on civil harms and sports, said recourse against the OHA, its leagues or teams over cognitive issues players suffer, or will suffer in the future, would need to be filed as a class action lawsuit, which would require a federal court certifying a group of players as a class – something players in the NHL concussion lawsuit were unable to achieve.

“The first question would be whether the leagues owe a legal duty to the players because a court could conclude that fighting on the ice, and the injury that results from it, is an inherent risk of hockey that players assume,” Karcher wrote in an email. “There would also be questions surrounding causation, in particular whether the players’ cognitive issues are due to the failure of the leagues to adopt rules to prevent or deter fighting on the ice.”

More recently, Brampton Bombers defenceman Tyler Wood left the Listowel Arena in an ambulance in 2016 after his head slammed to the ice in a fight.

In 2009, Sebringville-area linesman Kevin Brown nearly died on the ice in Woodstock after his carotid artery was severed while breaking up a fight. Brown is still dealing with multiple health issues resulting from the incident.

Proponents of fighting have long said that fewer fights would lead to more stick work and silliness, though so far it hasn’t been an issue. As fighting floundered in 2017-18, there was minimal difference in slashing, high-sticking, cross-checking and spearing penalties from the previous season across the OHA’s junior leagues.

“When I started there weren’t really any rookies getting into a vet’s face,” said Warriors forward Sean Ross, whose first junior season was 2014-15 in Lambton Shores. “There were a lot more fights, you could do stuff about it. Now that they’re trying to make the game more safe and adding the face shield and extra penalties, it just causes a lot more chirping after the whistles. That’s pretty much all I see. It’s a bit more of a chippy game now because guys know they won’t get in a tilt.”

cosmith@postmedia.com

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A combination of new rules and a renewed emphasis on brains over brawn has reduced fighting in the Ontario Hockey Association’s junior ranks, in particular the Ontario Junior Hockey League and Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. The following are stats over a two-or three-year period for fighting, as well as cross-checking, high-sticking, slashing and spearing – penalties many have argued would increase if fighting decreased or was taken out of the game.